Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

Showing posts with label French. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French. Show all posts

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé. Jean Painlevé, 1925-1982.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #468, released 2009. French language and subtitles with additional English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 315 minutes.


Summary: Several films contain scientific animal abuse. 


Details: Many of these short films document tiny animals, often ones living on the ocean floor. Painlevé narrates coverage shots as the animals move, eat, interact, and sometimes beat on one another with their tiny appendages, or we get a close-up of their mandibles as they devour even smaller life forms. None of this is gruesome, constitutes cruelty, or merits a fuss here. But several of the films cross the line by including human interaction . . . 


1) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 1, Track 4: The Sea Horse includes a scene in which a sea horse is dissected to show the many embryos carried in the pouch. The dissection must be underwater - and probably while the animal was alive - because of how the embryos float away as they are detached with a metal probe. 6:57-7:40.


2) Disc 1 Popular Films, Part 2, Track 1: The Vampire is a vampire bat, presented sympathetically by Painlevé until a guinea pig is presented as bait, 5:15-8:15. The cavy just sits there as the bat chews a hole in its face and drinks some blood.


3) Disc 2 Silent Research Films, Track 2: Experimental Treatment of a Hemorrhage in a Dog shows veterinarians operating on the throat of sedated dog. The procedure is entirely professional and the dog is shown alert and normal after the procedure, but you might not like watching a dog’s surgery.


The contents of the set, copied from the Criterion website:



Disc One  POPULAR FILMS

  • HYAS AND STENORHYNCHUS (HYAS ET STENORINQUES) 1927 10 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHINS (OURSINS) 1954 11 minutes Color
  • HOW SOME JELLYFISH ARE BORN (COMMENT NAISSENT DES MÉDUSES) 1960 14 minutes Black & White
  • LIQUID CRYSTALS (CRISTAUX LIQUIDES) 1978 6 minutes Color
  • THE SEA HORSE (L'HIPPOCAMPE) 1933 14 minutes Black & White
  • THE LOVE LIFE OF THE OCTOPUS (LES AMOURS DE LA PIEUVRE) 1967 14 minutes Color
  • SHRIMP STORIES (HISTOIRES DE CREVETTES) 1964 10 minutes Color
  • ACERA, OR THE WITCHES' DANCE (ACERA OU LE BAL DES SORCIÈRES) 1972 13 minutes Color
  • THE VAMPIRE (LE VAMPIRE) 1945 9 minutes Black & White
  • FRESHWATER ASSASSINS (LES ASSASSINS D'EAU DOUCE) 1947 24 minutes Black & White
  • SEA BALLERINAS (LES DANSEUSES DE LA MER) 1956 13 minutes Color
  • DIATOMS (DIATOMÉES) 1968 17 minutes Color
  • PIGEONS IN THE SQUARE (LES PIGEONS DU SQUARE) 1982 27 minutes Color


THE SOUNDS OF SCIENCE

  • Eight films with original score by Yo La Tengo
  • Interview with Yo La Tengo



Disc Two  EARLY POPULAR SILENT FILMS

  • THE OCTOPUS (LA PIEUVRE) 1927 13 minutes Black & White
  • SEA URCHIINS (LES OURSINS) 1928 10 minutes Black & White
  • DAPHNIA (LA DAPHNIE) 1928 9 minutes Black & White


SILENT RESEARCH FILMS

  • THE STICKLEBACK’S EGG (L’OEUF D’ÉPINOCHE) 1925 26 minutes Black & White
  • EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT OF A HEMORRHAGE IN A DOG (TRAITEMENT ÉXPERIMENTAL D'UNE HÉMORRAGIE CHEZ LE CHIEN) 1930 4 minutes Black & White


FILMS FOR LE PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE

  • THE FOURTH DIMENSION (LA QUATRIÈME DIMENSION) 1936 10 minutes Black & White
  • THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL (IMAGES MATHÉMATIQUES DE LA LUTTE POUR LA VIE) 1937 14 minutes Black & White
  • VOYAGE TO THE SKY (VOYAGE DANS LE CIEL) 1937 11 minutes Black & White
  • SIMILARITIES BETWEEN LENGTH AND SPEED (SIMILITUDES DES LONGEURS ET DES VITESSES) 1937 10 minutes Black & White


ANIMATION

  • BLUEBEARD (BARBE-BLEU) 1938 13 minutes Gasparcolor


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Anatomy of a Fall

Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d'une chute). Justine Triet, 2023.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1218, released 2024. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 151 minutes.


Summary: The family dog is intentionally poisoned with an aspirin overdose, then revived when he is near death, 2:01:30 - 2:04:20. The dog is fine afterwards and his performance is as exceptional as that of the human actors.


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Loulou

Loulou. Maurice Pialat, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in Cohen The Films of Maurice Pialat: Volume 1 Blu-ray set, released 2016. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Numéro deux

Numéro deux (Number Two). Jean-Luc Godard, 1975.

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Edition screened: Olive Blu-ray, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Furies Sexuelles / Prostitution Clandestine

Furies Sexuelles (Les Marie-Madeleine)/Prostitution Clandestine. Alain Payet, 1976.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #Peek-005, released 2021. French language with English subtitles. Combined runtimes approximately 210 minutes.


Summary: No violence to animals in either film.



• Furies Sexuelles (1976, approximately 106 minutes) 4/5❤


• Prostitution Clandestine (1975, approximately 104 minutes) 2.5/5❤


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L’enfance nue

L’enfance nue (Naked Childhood). Maurice Pialat, 1968.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #534, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.


Summary: Depicted murder of a nice house cat.


Details:

1) We meet a gentle black cat early in the film as he sits on a little girl’s lap watching her and her adopted brother play a game. From 5:36-5:50 the cat tries to cling to the banister for his life as the brother drops him down the deep stairwell of an apartment building. We see a cat, possibly injured, hobbling away 6:07-6:10.

2) The psychopathic brother said he would care for the injured cat but just puts him in a box outside. He removes the dead cat from the box at 12:52 and tosses him over a bank with trash at 13:14.


The balance of the film is an enjoyable social drama about the difficulties faced by well-intentioned foster families. L’enfance nue is Pialat’s first film and the director has fallen for junior high school drivel that animal cruelty is a writer’s tool to develop character. As always, bullshit, no excuse, and shame on him. The entire film is about showing the child’s malignant character through other diverse anecdotes that are interesting, persuasive, and sometimes humorous or thought-provoking. Pialat should not have led with the most over-used and ignominious method.


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A Full Day’s Work

A Full Day’s Work (A busy day or nine unusual murders in the same day by a single man whose job it is not / Une journée bien remplie ou Neuf meurtres insolites dans une même journée par un seul homme dont ce n'est pas le métier ). Jean-Louis Trintignant, 1973.

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Edition screened: Kino/Lorber Blu-ray, released 2021. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: Disregard for killing domestic animals.


Details:

1) We see the perpetrator planting a bomb with a timer in a utilitarian building that is overcrowded with turkeys, 14:36-15:00. In addition to the anticipatory dread that these birds will be blown up, the scene is distressing as the turkeys are crammed together, crashing into one another and their food dispenser.

2) The perpetrator murders a woman who lives alone with many cats (25:45), leaving the cats locked in a house without a caretaker.

3) We return to the shabby building filled with turkeys at 1:24:30, then see it explode from a distance at 1:25:00.


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Vivre sa vie

Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux (My Life to Live). Jean-Luc Godard, 1962.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #512, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.


A 1956 Gottlieb Sea Belles in the café at 8:20. A different unidentified table is first seen at 29:52 with a better view of the left side of the backglass at 35:35.


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Game Over

Game Over. Bernard Villiot, 1984.

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Edition screened: Included on Arron Blu-ray The Grand Duel, released 2019. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.



A 1981 Gottlieb Black Hole, figures prominently in the beginning of this short film.



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Merry-Go-Round

Merry-Go-Round. Jacques Rivette, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set The Jacques Rivette Collection, released 2016. English language and French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 160 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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The Lower Depths (Renoir)

The Lower Depths (Les Bas-fonds). Jean Renoir, 1936.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #239, released 2004. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.



The Criterion release also includes Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 adaptation of The Lower Depths.


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La Jetée

La Jetée. Chris Marker, 1963.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray / DVD #387 La Jetée/Sans Soleil, released 2012. Original French or original English narration. Runtime approximately 27 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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The Speech

The Speech (Le discours). Laurent Tirard, 2020.

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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2021. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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The Aviator’s Wife

The Aviator’s Wife: Comedies and Proverbs #1/6 (La femme de l'aviateur). Éric Rohmer, 1981.

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Edition screened: Blu-ray included in Potemkine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer, l’intégrale, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 143 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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Love in the Afternoon

Love in the Afternoon: Six Moral Tales #6/6 (L'amour l’après-midi; Chloé in the Afternoon). Éric Rohmer, 1972.

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Edition screened: Blu-ray included in Potemkine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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